Le Castel Café — Restaurant in Paris

This is a horrible restaurant that rips people off.

First, a friend and I requested no drinks necessary but the waiter - after acknowledging - forced a bottle of water on us which was 9 euros. We decided to just accept it cause we figured we may not have been clear or something.

However, the next scam took place when the waiter charged us way more then what we originally were supposed to pay (6euros more, AND with no receipt! we asked but he refused to give it cause it was only for himself apparently??). When I came back to ask about the extra charge, the waiter apologised and gave 5 euros in cash to me (1 euro less) and sent me off without an explanation. I only know now it’s a usual thing for them since other reviews have mentioned the waiters charging them more here.

In discomfort, I came back to clarify about the charges (since I had no receipt) and the waiters essentially ganged up on me and kept saying the extra charge was from the 15% service. They were kind of mocking me? and joking about refunding me more money (took money from their pouches and were pretending to give it to me or something) and literally joking in french and dancing in circles around me even though all I wanted was some clarification. They also mentioned the 1 extra euro that was not refunded (showing that they knew they refunded me less) and joked about it being their tip. They left me standing at the entrance in confusion and walked off laughing.

At this point I was extremely upset and stood there talking to my friend. When the waiter that served us came out again, I asked for the receipt once more and once again he tried to explain the 15% charge like I was a child. This time I snapped at him and told him I was aware of the charge and all the exact prices of the food, I even listed out the calculations verbally to show I wasn’t some inept child. I insinuated that I knew he ripped me off 1 euro as well and he could keep it as tip but I wanted a receipt. He probably felt my anger since this time he agreed to get a receipt for me, and - surprise surprise - the prices of all the food listed are about 1-2 euros more than what was listed on the menu. He also dumped the receipt in my hand and ran off afterwards maybe cause he knew the prices were wrong?

In all, a horrible restaurant with really terrible service, as evident by the numerous other bad reviews and low ratings...

TOURIST TRAP. If you’re considering eating at this place since it’s conveniently near the Eiffel Tower, DON’T. Waiters are disrespectful, plus the greasy and uninspiring food is certainly not worth the price.

Initially, we were seated in the sun and we asked to be moved to indoor seating. There were so many spaces inside, yet they chose to put us under the sun.

Racist waiter greeted my dad and I in Chinese even though we were speaking in English. Waiter disappears for long periods of time and I try to ask another waiter a question about the menu and get ignored. Original waiter comes back to tell us the other waiter didn’t speak English or French but only understood Arabic??? (Which was allegedly why he ignored us).

Waiters (multiple, yes 2) laughed at me for trying to speak French when they stated they did not understand English. (When I brought to attention about the mistake with my dad’s order and when we tried to talk to them about the water issue).

Not sure why this was the only restaurant that I’ve gone to where my French (learned in school with DELF) was incomprehensible, even when I showed them google translate when speaking to them was no longer an option.

Don’t even get me started on the food. Had a margarita pizza that was definitely not worth 15 euros and my dad got this fish fillet meal that wasn’t even what he ordered. But then again, they pretended to not understand.

We asked for water, and don’t make the same mistake as us, specify you want tap water so that they don’t charge you 9 euros for bottled water.

Waiter disappeared into oblivion after we noticed that other tables all had pitchers and we had a water charge and a bottle of water that was opened for us. (We noticed too late). He never came back for our table even when we were ready to pay.

Had to go up to the counter to pay and worker there had the audacity to ask for tip but then his coworker told him to stop because we noticed the water charge earlier.

This dine-in experience alone gave me Paris Syndrome and I remember being on the verge of tears there because of how my dad and I were treated. Hope no one else has to go through the same...

If I could give it 0 stars, I would. This is by far the most awful place I’ve ever been to, including terribly rated places in America. DO NOT GO HERE. At first, service was ok because I can speak french and, they thought I was a local but, then they realized I wasn’t and everything started going downhill. They 100% took advantage of us and, we are still definitely very mad at ourselves for not getting up and leaving but, we were so hungry and tired. First of all, the menu is terrible. We ordered pizza (14,50 EUR. Comes with fries…???), sausages (18,90 EUR. Also comes with fries) and, pasta bolognese (20,00 EUR!!!!). We also ordered three small cokes - This was the first scam, the server told us the small cup was the size of a coffee cup just so we would order the medium one and charge us more (TWELVE euros for a normal coke W.T.H??). The food took forever to come out but, we were still hopeful it was because we were about to have a dinner that would be worth it. When that food came out…. I don’t even know what to say… just look at the images. The pizza was as if someone just defrosted a boxed pizza and put it on my plate, the pasta was cold and sticky and it couldn’t have had more than two spoonfuls of bologna sauce (I have 0 skills in the kitchen and, I can make something better looking and more tasteful than that) and, the sausages… omg… the sausages… were supposed to be Frankfurt, were in fact, literally regular old wiener sausages that you can get at any regular supermarket and boil to make a regular hot dog at home. They were plain too… we had to ask for some ketchup and mayo. Now, the fries… you’d think they can’t mess up the french fries right?… well, they did… cold, hard and without a pinch of salt (which we asked for and, they never brought). It was the worst experience to begin our time in Paris. Honestly, this place was like a bad omen. Worst of all, we ended up having to pay 100 freakin euros for what was the WORST meal/experience of our lives. You know how they say all places around the Eiffel Tower are tourists traps? Well, I don’t know if it’s all of them but, this one...